Cinematic Adventures: TMNT

It’s time for another installment of our movie based series entitled Cinematic Adventures. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what’s going on here, please refer to previous articles for more information. Today we are going to finish off my four part series of movies based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Let’s take a look at the 2007 CGI film that hits all of the right notes in all of the right places, TMNT.

A number of years have passed, the turtles have defeated the shredder, and now they are up against something more evil than they could have ever imagined. In ancient times, a warrior by the name of Yaotl commanded an army of four generals to not only wreak havoc across the world, but to also find a portal which is supposed grant them all of the power they desire. Upon activating it, Yaotl becomes immortal, and also ends up turning his fellow comrades to stone in the process. To make things even worse, 13 monsters are also released with only one objective in mind, destroying everything in their path.

Fast forward to present time where our four green friends have seen better days. Each of them has their own job now, and all of them miss the good old days where they used to spend time together as a family. In a strange turn of events, a rich buisness owner by the name of Max Winters has April o’ Neil dig some ancients relics for him. Little does she know that he was the leader of this group of warriors from the past, and now seeks to use his resources to send all of them back into the portal and rid himself of this curse once and for all. Unhappy about his decision, the soldiers decide to rule the world instead, and now it’s up to the turtles to settle this family feud before innocent people get caught in the crossfire.

Now let’s take a moment to go over the high and low points of the film. First of all, the fight scenes are a delight to watch, particularly because of the creative use of CGI technology. The family dynamic is explored a little bit more here than the previous films too, which adds a new level of enjoyment to the proceedings as well. Each turtle looks beautiful, and has a certain set of characteristics to them that makes it easier for the viewer to distinguish one from the other. As for the voice acting, it’s not bad either, but Splinter just felt a little off to me for some reason. Overall, this delightful animated film was definitely a step in the right direction for the series, and stands very close to being my absolute favorite movie out of the entire franchise, tied with the first live action adventure of course.

TMNT was a breath of fresh air for what seemed to be an over saturated product at the time, and is definitely something fans of the Ninja Turtles should definitely consider checking out.

That concludes my thoughts on TMNT. If there are any other movies you would like to talk about, please let us know about them in the comments below.